Recognition of popular songs by children and adolescents with cochlear implants.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 31
Description: Cochlear implants, which are optimized for speech perception, provide users with good temporal resolution but poor pitch resolution. In the present study, we examined the music processing abilities of child and adolescent implant users and comparison groups of normally hearing children and adults. Specifically, we tested their identification of original and altered renditions of familiar recordings of popular songs. Cochlear implant users performed somewhat more poorly than age-matched hearing listeners on instrumental and bass-and-drum renditions that preserved a number of acoustic features of the original recordings. Dramatic differences between these groups were evident on piano renditions that presented the main melodic theme in a novel timbre. Age and working memory were associated with implant users' performance on the challenging piano renditions. Despite their poor pitch resolution, which makes the most common pitch steps in music (1 and 2 semitones) inaccessible, cochlear implant users provided favorable appraisals of all renditions.
Notes: Advisers: Sandra Trehub; Glenn Schellenberg.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, page: 2350.

MICR copy on microfiche (1 microfiche).